Understanding biomarkers and patient eligibility for CAR T cell therapies in diffuse large B cell lymphoma.

Here, we share a presentation by Kieron Dunleavy, GW Cancer Center, Washington D.C., US, on biomarkers and patient eligibility for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T-cell) therapies in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

In this presentation, Dunleavy discusses key clinical trials and subtypes of DLBCL that are associated with mutations which may represent therapeutic biomarkers (Figure 1), as well as key factors that impact CAR T-cell therapy response, specifically in high grade B-cell lymphoma (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Molecular biology of DLBCL and their candidate drug targets* 

*Adapted from Level, et al.¹

Figure 2. Impact of high-grade B-cell lymphoma on efficacy of CAR T-cells* 

*Adapted from Ali A, et al.² Created with BioRender.com 

Watch or download the presentation to learn more about CAR T-cell therapy in patients with DLBCL, including:

• The currently approved therapies and clinical trials associated with these CAR T-cell therapies
• Key factors that impact CAR T-cell therapy response
• The subtypes of DLBCL and their World Health Organization (WHO) and International Consensus Criteria 2022 classifications
• The impact of disease characteristics on the outcome of treatment assessed in ZUMA-7 (NCT03391466) compared with TRANSFORM (NCT03575351).

Key points

• Disease characteristics, tumor biological characteristics, tumor microenvironment and interval response have been shown to impact CAR T-cell response.
• The ZUMA-7 and TRANSFORM clinical trials showed that CAR T-cell therapy was more advantageous compared with autologous stem cell transplant.
• There are several genetic subtypes of DLBCL with hallmark genetic features that can set the stage for candidate drug targeting.
• Older patients (≥65 years old), patients with activated B-cell cases, or high grade B-cell lymphomas had particularly good survival outcomes compared to other disease characteristics.^3,4
• High grade B-cell lymphoma has been shown to have better survival outcomes post CAR T-cell therapy compared with other DLBCL subtypes, both in clinical trials and real-world evidence studies.¹